Archive for Listopad 6th, 2012

A firearms officer died yesterday after shooting himself in an apparent suicide at a city police station.

Constable Rod Gellatly had ‘turned the gun on himself’ after arriving at work as normal yesterday morning.

Police refused to give any further detail but admitted officers were not looking for anyone else in connection with the 41-year-old’s death.

The incident happened at Baird Street police station in Glasgow – the Strathclyde Police base for firearms specialists, generally of constable or sergeant rank.

There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that PC Gellatly had shot himself in the station’s toilets. It is understood he came to work, took a weapon and ammunition from the armoury and was later found dead by colleagues.

An ambulance was called around 11am but later left with no casualty on board.

The tragedy is certain to raise questions over the vetting of firearms officers who have to undergo strict psychological assessment before being allowed to carry a weapon.

The average percentage of officers with firearms training across Scotland is around four per cent – currently around 700 out of 17,436 officers.

Lothian and Borders Police was called in immediately as an independent force to investigate, while a report was sent to the procurator fiscal.

An independent probe by another force is also standard practice in cases where an officer is killed in a firearms incident.

In a statement, Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins of Strathclyde Police said: ‘It is with great sadness I have to tell you that a serving Strathclyde Police officer died today in an incident where a firearm was discharged at Baird Street Police Office.

‘Our thoughts are with the officer’s family and friends at this difficult time.’

PC Gellatly is understood to have been married and lived on the south side of Glasgow.

He served previously in the Fleet Air Arm as a Petty Officer based in the South of England between 1989 and 2002.

Cordoned off: Officers stand outside a Strathclyde police station in Baird Street, Glasgow, where an officer died after a gun was fired

Emergency: Officers called for an ambulance at 11am today, which attended the scene at Baird Street Police Station and left shortly before 2pm

But in recent years he had been living in the Glasgow area and serving as a policeman in Strathclyde, including spells in Wishaw and Shotts.

Police are issued with a range of firearms which vary between different forces but include Heckler & Koch rifles and semi-automatic carbines and pistols, while some forces use shotguns.

Brian Docherty, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, said: ‘We can confirm that one of our colleagues has died following a firearms incident in Baird Street police station this morning.

‘It is too early to speculate as to the circumstances surrounding the tragic death and our thoughts turn immediately to his family who have lost their loved one and colleagues who have lost a friend.’

Labour MSP Graeme Pearson, the former head of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said: ‘It is a dreadful tragedy for the officer, his family, his friends and a terrible loss to the wider police service.

‘I know Strathclyde Police will support those affected with the level of professionalism one expects in the circumstances.

‘A lost friend’: Fellow officers today paid tribute to the policeman who hasn’t been named

James McIvor, 37, of nearby Pinkston Road, added: ‘It was a bit of a mystery at the start of the day then we found that a police officer was killed.

‘The fact a gun was involved makes it even more horrifying. It is a big shock for it to happen, especially in the middle of a police station.’

Scaffolder Neil McCuaigs, 38, was working nearby at the time and said police dogs could be heard barking aggressively.

He said: ‘I knew something terrible had happened straight away.’

Last night Gary Gray, 39, came to lay a poppy cross at the station with his son Bobby, eight, to ‘show respect’.

He said: ‘I heard what had happened on the radio so I came down to show my respect. I think sometimes the police are not given the credit they deserve for the help they give us.

‘They are here to help, they do a difficult job and I think we should show our appreciation – not just for this victim but for them all.’

Patients could sue the NHS if they are forced into mixed sex wards under a revamp of the NHS constitution, it emerged yesterday.

The patients’ charter will also enshrine in law the need for patients and families to be consulted before a patient is put on an ‘end of life’ pathway.

Both moves by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt herald a major victory for patients and follow separate Daily Mail campaigns over the indignity of mixed sex accommodation and the controversial end-of-life treatment plans.

A ban on mixed wards comes nearly two decades after an initial pledge by then Tory Prime Minister John Major. Just last year, half of all NHS trusts in England admitted they had placed patients in mixed rooms.

Since then, the Department of Health has introduced fines of £250 per patient, per day for hospitals still doing so.

But the new NHS constitution will leave patients in no doubt about their rights. It will declare: ‘If you are admitted to hospital, you will not have to share sleeping accommodation with patients of the opposite sex.’

It will also give reassurances to vulnerable patients, saying: ‘You have the right to be involved fully in all discussions and decisions about your health and care, including in your end of life care, and to be given information to enable you to do this. Where appropriate this right includes your family and carers.’

‘The right to be involved’:The patient’s charter will leave them in no doubt about their rights

Lib Dem Care Services Minister Norman Lamb said the new obligation would make ‘clear and explicit’ to patients and their families that they would be kept informed over end-of-life treatment.

He added that although there had been a ‘very substantial’ reduction in the number of patients on mixed sex wards, all patients had a right to expect single sex rooms.

Mr Lamb made clear that all providers of NHS care would be legally bound to take account of the NHS constitution. ‘Ultimately, there could be a legal challenge if a provider was systematically failing to take account of the constitution,’ he added.

‘It provides much greater force and again it restates the principle that you should have single-sex accommodation if you have NHS care.’

THE NEW PROMISES TO PATIENTS

Respect for staff - or no treatment

You should treat NHS staff and other patients with respect and recognise that violence, causing a nuisance or disturbance on NHS premises could result in prosecution and that abusive or violent behaviour could result in you being refused access to the NHS.

Prompt apology if things go wrong

To ensure that if you are harmed while receiving healthcare you receive an appropriate explanation and apology, delivered with sensitivity and recognition of the trauma you have experienced, and know that where mistakes have been made, lessons will be learned to help avoid a similar incident occurring again, and to ensure that the organisation learns lessons from complaints and uses these to improve NHS services.

Decisions on end-of-life care

You have the right, to be involved fully in all discussions and decisions about your healthcare, including in your end of life care, and to be given information to enable you to do this. Where appropriate this right includes your family and carers.

Single sex wards

If you are admitted to hospital, you will not have to share sleeping accommodation with patients of the opposite sex, in line with details set out in the Handbook to the NHS Constitution.

He also explained that care providers would be obliged to consult patients on end-of-life care.

‘[The constitution] will now specifically refer to the importance of involvement, so I think it really does genuinely strengthen the obligation,’ he went on.

But Marie Curie Cancer Care argued that the Government should go further and called for the next independent national audit of the end-of-life Liverpool Care Pathway to be brought forward.

Andy Burnham, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said he was disappointed that patients would still not be given a choice of whether to die at home or in a hospice.

He added: ‘While these changes are good as far as they go, I would like to see much more ambition from the Government on end-of-life care.

‘Far too many families in England find themselves spending their final hours with a loved-one in a hospital.

Many would much rather be together at home or in a hospice. This more personal approach can also cost much less.

The Mail has highlighted concerns about relatives not being consulted when their loved ones are being put on the LCP.

The pathway means patients deemed close to death are sedated and denied nutrition and fluids by tube – but many families have come forward to complain that this happens without discussion with relatives of those involved.

Last month the family of Margaret Kibble, 95, told how hospital staff allegedly removed all her drips and feeding tubes without any consultation after she was admitted to hospital in Lewisham in January 2011.

When family members heard her begging for water they demanded that doctors put the great-grandmother back on food and fluids.

Nearly two years later, she is still alive and back home.

Last night her son Graham Satchell, 57, welcomed the announcement and said: ‘We applaud any changes that mean hospitals talk more with families.

In some cases the Liverpool Care Pathway is the right thing to do, but families need to be told the fors and against.’

Former nurse Jane Taylor, 57, claims that she only found out that doctors had sedated her mother and withdrawn food and fluids when she caught a glimpse of her medical notes on a windowsill.

But it was too late to stop the process and 83-year-old Phyllis Nicholls, who was being treated at a hospital in Surrey, died.

Last night Mrs Taylor said: ‘This is a very good idea because older people are scared of going into hospital at the moment.’

But Imelda Redmond, director of policy and public affairs at Marie Curie, said: ‘The Liverpool Care Pathway has enabled thousands to experience dignified care in the last days of life. We have become increasingly concerned about the media coverage which reports negative experiences of people in hospital and the end of life.

‘That is why we are calling for the next independent national audit to be brought forward so that we can identify as soon at possible where these failings are taking place.’

YOU DON’T HAVE TO TREAT PATIENTS WHO ARE ABUSIVE NHS STAFF ARE TOLD

Abusive patients face being thrown out of hospitals and denied treatment under reforms to the NHS ‘bill of rights’.

Repeat offenders will be barred from trusts or doctors’ surgeries in a similar way to unruly pupils who are excluded from school. Some 60,000 NHS workers a year are violently assaulted.

But almost 70 per cent of the attacks involve patients who are not responsible for their actions due to underlying conditions such as mental health problems.

Proposed changes to the NHS constitution will allow staff to refuse to treat violent patients but only ‘if it is safe to do so’.

Care minister Norman Lamb said: ‘It is important to understand we have responsibilities as well as rights and we should be treating professionals with respect. It is a two-way street.’

Fewer than one in 40 attacks on NHS staff end in prosecution. Hospitals and GPs can already ban abusive patients according to their local policy but this is the first time a national guideline has been put in place.

Peter Carter, of the Royal College of Nursing union, said: ‘We agree with the sentiment in principle but it is another thing putting it into practice. We are not going to fling out a person if they have a very major ailment and they are being abusive.’